a moth goes into a podiatrist office and the podiatrists office says what's the problem and the MA says what's the problem where I begin Norma Donald is one of those comedians who functions as a litmus test for people's sense of humor if you find norm hilarious for example I know that your sense of humor and mine are probably pretty similar norm splits people and if he does so more than most I think it's because his vision of comedy is unflinching unflinchingly devoted to what he finds funny which means that he won't ever try to modify his work to appease an audience of course this has led to what I think is the mistaken notion one that you often see in YouTube comments that norm just doesn't care what people think because I go to work for Gregory Lynn of it honestly doc I don't even know what I'm doing anymore I don't even know if Gregory Olinda that she knows he only knows that he has power over me and that seems to bring him happiness I think norm cares deeply about his audiences he wouldn't spend thousands of hours honing his material if he didn't want to make people laugh he just doesn't let the audience dictate the direction of his work he doesn't pander in fact during his time at SNL as the host of Weekend Update he often did the exact opposite norms distaste for performing in front of an audience that was essentially forced to laugh urged him to tell jokes that would shock them into silence or gasps a decade before Ricky Gervais made a splash by making fun of celebrities at the Golden Globes norm hosted the SBS with jokes like this he became the first defensive player to win the Heisman Trophy congratulations Charles that is something that no one can ever take away from you unless you kill your wife and a waiter not only does that take bravery it takes dedication at night I I sometimes wake up and I turn to some old lady in my bed that's on my arm a lady that I once loved doc I don't know where it turned to my youngest Alexandria she fell in that in the cold of last year Norm's dedication to the craft is almost inhuman and so much of it is unseen he's one of the smartest well-read people and stand up particularly well read in Russian literature if you couldn't tell by the names that he's making up in the moth joke and yet his whole act is predicated on this folksy dopey innocence he's like that magician from The Prestige who devotes his whole life to a character just to pull off a great trick this is the tree this is a cocoons I am this is why no one can detect this medicine total devotion to his own not so sacrifice this is the hardest pill to swallow duck laughter boy Gregg raro they've been a little [ __ ] I no longer love him Norm's not trying to pull off tricks of course he's trying to pull off jokes a joke with a premise and a punchline it's kind of funny norm was known for his super short jokes during his Weekend Update period and now he's known for these super long rambling jokes that he often tells on Late Show appearances it's these longer jokes which bear a resemblance to shaggy dog stories that often get him labeled as an anti comic or a meta comic but he strongly insists that he is neither of these things in interviews norm rejects anything that sees itself as above comedy looking down on it either to ridicule or to comment his jokes always have punchlines and punchlines that make sense whether or not you think they're funny he can deliver a joke quickly hey you know the funniest part of doing an office conga line when you look back and realize you're doing it alone and you're not in an office you're going to psychiatric Oz but where he can string out punchlines like pearls on a wire across a long story this joke from his special me doing stand-up is 12 minutes long seems like there's too much news like you know coz now to have 24-hour news now when I was a young boy the news was half a hour that was the whole new he starts by talking about 24-hour news and eventually makes his way to a detailed description of how he would murder someone and the progression is completely natural take her body to the woods and barrier in a very very very deep grave along the way there was plenty of punchlines to laugh at and as things get crazier you get drawn into a kind of hysterical ad has vanished chatter fat I'm kind of happy it's Janice and not somebody I know I would like to meet her one day that would be a lot of [ __ ] I forgot she vanished every time they will find you in a shallow grave serial killers are supposed to be so shrewd and cunning and yeah but then when it comes time for the grave hallo hasty yeah what I would do is I would like I would look at the lay I would select a lady and then I would follow her habits in a sannan-san what would I be holding in my right hand in the parking lot but it's cheese sandwich I got a whole [ __ ] van full of them I bet get her in there and I would do that thing that makes me feel like God and I would take her body to the woods and bury her in a very very very deep grave the intelligence of this joke is there if you want to look for it the word choices the phrasing it's all precisely chosen but norm doesn't call attention to his own intelligence the punchlines just appear like flashes of light perhaps I could bring myself to reach over to that cocked and loaded gun that lays on the bedside in the constellation of comedy crates norm is among the least famous but he's also one of the most underrated that's because stand-up was never a stepping stone for him to greater success or greater fame but an end in itself an art to perfect his kind of comedy is built to last like a low frequency noise that might not demand the same kind of attention as high pitched sounds but will travel a much greater distance in the end the norms jokes are the ones you'll remember late into your life the ones we'll all be telling for years to come because their construction is sophisticated but their delivery is easy to understand getting that balance exactly right is the work of an entire career but nor McDonald more than anyone else knows that a long winding journey is okay as long as the payoff is worth it this is duck sometimes I feel like a spider even though I have a moth just barely hanging on to my web with an everlasting fire underneath me I'm not feeling good and so the mosque the doctor says Mothman you're troubled but you should be seeing a psychiatrist why on earth did you come here and then the MA said because the light was on [Applause] hey everybody thank you so much for watching my episode on norm I really love this comedy make sure you subscribe to this channel if you want to see more videos like this every week or so and subscribe to norms youtube channel at Norm Macdonald you can find it if you just type that in where you post his podcasts and live show this episode was brought to you by Squarespace if you want to make a website and you want it to be a really easy process Squarespace has some beautiful award-winning designer templates to choose from that makes the process so easy and simple it's got 24-hour customer service no upgrades nothing to install no patches ever and picking your domain name is super super easy you can start your free trial at squarespace.com and if you use the offer code nerdwriter you can get 10% off your first purchase